Yep, The Nintendo Switch Gets Another Perfectly-Reviewed Game

Another week, another predictable critical reception for a new Nintendo Switch game: Bayonetta+Bayonetta 2 comes out tomorrow, February 16, and the package is already up to 90 on Metacritic, with a perfect score from Gamespot livening up the mix. The absurd hack and slash title from Platinum Games has always been a fan favorite, and there's no indication that things are going to be any different this time around. Expect it to not only sell well but to continue bolstering Nintendo's impressive console sales: a steady drip of new releases can be crucial to keeping excitement alive. And so the Nintendo Switch continues a bit of sleight of hand as it quickly builds out the most impressive year-one library for any new console I can remember.

The package is mostly a release of Bayonetta 2, with Bayonetta thrown in as a particularly sweet extra. For many, this could be the first chance they'll get to play the game -- it garnered excellent reviews at the time, but it came out on the troubled Wii U. It's the same story as any number of hidden gems on Nintendo's quixotic system -- there were some clunkers in the mix, to be sure, but despite the Wii U's failure as a piece of hardware, it had some excellent games throughout its lifespan. Many were left to languish, or at least they had been until now.

As Bayonetta 2 shows, that failure is a curious driver behind the Switch's success. For the Switch, it started with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a re-release with a revamped battle mode that's racked up a colossal attach rate on the new system. When it came out, Nintendo was able to treat it like a new release -- it was good enough that anyone who played it on the Wii U wanted to be able to make it portable, and anyone who didn't just wanted to play Mario Kart. The ports continued through titles like Hyrule Warriors and Pokken Tournament, and it will continue with games like Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze. The library remains deep, and Nintendo can keep re-rereleasing for years if it wants to: I'd gladly play The Wind Waker HD on Switch, which would be a Switch port of a Wii U remaster of a Gamecube game.

I don't know if it was worth those years in the desert to give Nintendo this giant library of underappreciated port fodder, but it's certainly paying off now. Even when the Switch has long gaps between new exclusives, Nintendo can keep excitement up by releasing all these games almost as if they were new, because to most people, they are.

I'm a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Republic, IGN.com, Wired and more. I cover social games, video games, technology and that whole gray area that happens when technology and consumers collide.